Quite often we tend to think of violent crimes as being the ones where people are sentenced to serve long prison sentences. However, the truth is that white-collar crimes can result in very lengthy prison sentences too.

An example of this is the fact that a 72-year-old Missouri man, who is already serving time in prison for white-collar crimes, could end up spending the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted on more counts related to mail fraud and money laundering.

Currently, the man is in a federal prison where he is serving time on charges related to student loan fraud and filing false tax returns. In that case, the man was not found guilty by a jury, but rather pleaded guilty. He will already be in prison until 2014.

However, now a federal grand jury has indicted the man on a total of 15 counts related to mail fraud and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that the 72-year-old had solicited money from close to 40 investors. And, while he did return some of their money, in total, investors still reportedly lost around $1.8 million.

Supposedly, the man was preparing tax returns for people, and would pitch his companies. With one of these companies, he allegedly told investors that their money was going toward buying property in places like Lake of the Ozarks and Kansas City, but then using the money on his personal expenses.

Now, with these new mail fraud and money laundering charges, the 72-year-old could end up being sentenced to serve another 20 years. This would extend his sentence until 2034 -- when if the man is still alive -- he would be around 95 years old.

Source: Kansas City Business Journal, "Former Lee's Summit man is indicted in $3M Ponzi scheme," Paul Koepp, Feb. 1, 2012